


Advancing Interrelationships

by Featherine_Aurora



Category: AI: The Somnium Files (Video Game), Zero Escape (Video Games)
Genre: Female Protagonist, Fluff and Humor, Gen, Platonic Relationships, Post-Canon, Relationship(s), character focused
Language: English
Status: In-Progress
Published: 2021-01-10
Updated: 2021-01-11
Packaged: 2021-03-14 14:07:06
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 2,498
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/28671984
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/Featherine_Aurora/pseuds/Featherine_Aurora
Summary: Shizue finds herself having a sudden conversation with Date in her office and ends up needing to help him with parenting Mizuki and some other things. At the same time, she's been having strange dreams about horrible things that feel strangely real. Set after the Resolution ending.At the moment, just something for me to try both at writing AI characters and at writing something Boss focused. I'm interested in expanding this into something more, but I want to put my foot in the door with this first.
Relationships: Aiba & Boss | Kuranushi Shizue, Boss | Kuranushi Shizue & Date Kaname, Date Kaname & Okiura Mizuki, Date Kaname/Sagan Hitomi, Other Relationship Tags to Be Added
Comments: 5
Kudos: 6





	Advancing Interrelationships

Shizue was in her office and currently looking over some case files. That and preparing a briefing for later. The later task for a bit more difficult, but both served adequately as something mind-numbing. It had been just a month since Aiba had been reunited with Date, but it felt like almost like life had gone back to how it was before the New Cyclops Killer incident but better in some ways. That’s what she like to tell herself at times. Everything had worked out, in spite of the mistakes along the way.

_That doesn’t help with my guilt that much. It definitely doesn’t help with those weird dreams_

Shizue had had dreams recently of things that fortunately hadn’t happened. They were dreams where Saito was able to kill more people than he had. Those deaths were so horrible. She had no idea why her mind would conjure up that sort of thing. Even So hadn’t deserved to be chopped up like he had been in one of her dreams, as much as he was a bastard. She even had a dream of being tricked into meeting up with Saito and then getting killed after he’d stolen her body. Shizue had no idea of what to make of these dreams. 

_Maybe it’s my conscience?_

It’s probably that. It’s either that or coffee ground via an exercise bike converted into a coffee grinder has some really strange side effects. It was probably strange that she used it that way at all. But Shizue didn’t feel like moving the bike out. So why not make of its extra function? It even helped her work out more often through the carrot of sating her coffee addiction. 

_Wait, I’m really using that converted bike just because it’s in this room and I can’t bother to get rid of it? Date might be right about me being a hoarder._

“Can I come in?”

“Sure”.

She’d responded to that query absent-mindedly. But then she realised something awful. That was Date. No, he couldn’t come in right now. He couldn’t see her as she was right now. But it was too late the instant she’s responded. Date had already entered and was looking at her, shocked.

“You’re actually sitting in your chair?”.

_Dammit._

She hadn’t wanted him to ever walk in her not sitting on her desk. Shizue had kept that up for ages. All that effort was wasted. Now it might even be weird if she tried to try and maintain that routine after this slip up. She decided to try and pretend this had been intentional.

“Yeah. I’m on top of enough things already without needing to do that. Like you”.

“What?”

“I mean that I’m always on top of you and not just in the sense of being your superior”.

Date glowered at her. “Could you not say that? I happen to have someone that I’m interested in”.

“Yet you only bring that up when you want to get out of me dominating you”. Shizue dropped the grin she’d had on her face since her first response to Date. “Seriously, I understand that you have needed to have time to process a lot. But it’s obvious that you’re into Hitomi and that she’s not made a move herself because she’s concerned about pushing her connection to Falco on to you. She’s stuck waiting for a signal from you. You need to figure out your intentions in regards to Hitomi and communicate them better”.

“How do you know this, supposing that its true?”.

“First, because I keep in touch with Iris”.

“I know. Still trying to get her to hook you up with your husbands?”.

She ignored that attempt by Date to divert the conversation. Instead of reacting to it, Shizue continued to put forward her point.

“It’s also because I’ve kept my skills as a detective from going rusty. I might spend a lot of time on top of a desk, but I still am able to gather info from people and from observations. Plus, neither you or Hitomi are that subtle about your feelings to each other”. 

“We’re not?”.

“No”.

“Huh”. Date seemed to be genuinely surprised. “I thought that I was doing a good job at covering that stuff up”.

“Nope. You really sucked at it”.

For a moment, Date glanced at an empty spot, probably where Aiba was being projected in his vision. He then angrily said “You two don’t need to team up on me like this”.

Shizue was happy to have someone back her up, even if that person was currently both invisible to her and not able to communicate with her. Well, she could technically look at Date’s fake eye that served as Aiba’s physical vessel. But staring at one of Date’s eyes would be weird.

_He might start to think I have a weird fetish on the level of his hip bone one._

Date spend a couple of minutes having a silent conversation with Aiba. Shizue was used to that and left him to do that. But she zoned out a bit too much. 

“I did have something to ask you. Not as your employee but as a friend”.

Shizue was startled slightly by Date talking to her again, but she quickly nodded. “Sure. Go ahead”.

“I’m sure you’ve been keeping track of Mizuki’s therapy, right?”.

“Yeah, I have”.

Date had asked her to use the resources of ABIS to help get Mizuki the mental health support she needed after the death of both her parents, one of them in a very gory manner, followed by her teacher being taken hostage and nearly killed by Saito who was in the body of the person who’d cared for her for years. Plus, there was the effects of abuse from her parents that really needed to be treated as well. It was a credit to Mizuki that she managed to function as well as she did. At times, she was more put together than Date.

_Or me, to be honest._

“I need advice on how to get Mizuki to attend her therapy more reliably and how to get the idea of it being a sign of me seeing her as weak that I want her to keep at it”

Shizue wasn’t sure how good her advice would really be, but she decided to give it a shot. “First, you could try to talk about it with her. By that, I mean to have a proper conversation, not that thing you two tend to have where you throws insults at each other and are really snarky”. 

“I’m not good at having serious conversations with Mizuki. I’m always bullshitting my way through issues that I don’t feel like I understand at all. The way we talk to each other is just how I manage to handle parental stuff”. Date raised a hand up. “Yes, I know it’s not good. I’m really bad at parenting. I have no idea why Mizuki agreed to be adopted by me, but she’s happy with living with me for some reason”.

“She is. Mizuki does like you and trust you, in her own way. So she might take what you have to say about therapy more seriously if she sees that you think your point is worth putting some extra effort over”.

“I’ll try”.

“Okay. My next idea is that you could try bribing her”.

Date narrowed his eyes. “Seriously?”.

“Kids like it when you give them stuff they want for doing something they hate, right”, Shizue replied with a weary tone. She really was just coming up with what she could. But she didn’t know anything about parenting.

“Are you going to help me pay for that?”.

“No”. The limits of what she could justify in terms of expenses on the other hand was something Shizue knew a lot about.

“Yeah, figures. Any better advice?”. 

“I do have one last suggestion. It might help if you went ahead and did the same. It might be easier to get her to go along with therapy if you weren’t blatantly ignoring your own need for it”.

“I don’t need therapy”.

Date sounded so immature when he said that.

“If I were Mizuki hearing you say that, I’d wonder why I should need to attend therapy sessions when the guy urging me to do it and who has frequent nightmares says stuff like that”.

Date gritted his teeth. He then, in a reluctant tone, said “I guess you have a point”

“I often do”.

Date rolled her eyes. “Sure, Boss. Anyway, I guess I can try to attend therapy sessions if it’ll help Mizuki. You’ll cover the expenses for that?”. 

Shizue grinned. “I can do that for you, my thrall”.

That made Date cringe. “I think you’re obviously talking to Iris too much if you’re absorbing stuff like that from Ota”.

“Would you prefer I call you something else? Like my bitch?”.

“No”.

“Seriously though, I’m pretty good at stretching our budget”.

“I know. I read that report about that expert you recently decided to hire, Akane Kurashiki. I have no idea how you managed to justify that to accounting”.

“So you do read all our memos. Good boy”. She tried to reach forward and mockingly pat him on his head, but Date avoided that easily and glared at her.

“Sorry”.

“Boss, do you think this morphogenetic field theory stuff of hers is something worth hiring her for?”.

“Aiba thinks it is”.

“I guess its not totally stupid to do that then”.

After saying that, Date suddenly flinched. _I guess that Aiba didn’t take that comment well._

“Anyway… I hope Mizuki can make it through all this”.

Shizue smiled. “She will. Mizuki’s an amazing girl. Plus, you’re actually pretty good at the parenting thing”

In response, Date sighed. “No, not really. I’m just lucky to be looking after someone like Mizuki. Well, when she’s not shit talking me”.

“You deserve that, Mr Animal Husbandry video collector”.

“Why should I get this from someone who makes everything into an innuendo and who has a collection of boy band member body pillows?”

“Animal Husbandry videos, Date. Plus, Aiba’s told me about you the way you use her x-ray functions”.

Date opened his mouth, but just left it hanging as he apparently couldn’t come up with a retort. He settled on closing his mouth and clicking his tongue. 

“I’m not against fetishes. But you’re on a unique level of your own”.

“Fine. I admit that”, Date conceded with a grudging tone. “But I do tell Mizuki not to mess with my computer”

“You could do a better job at locking your computer”. Shizue frowned. “I hope you aren’t as bad with system security with the devices you use for ABIS”

“I’m not. Aiba’s good to helping me keep on top of that”

 _That’s a relief._ _We’ve had far too many embarrassments with security_. She was still kicking herself for not knowing about Pewter’s relationship with Renju until it was too late.

“Mizuki’s just can be really observant. She’s smart for her age too”.

“Yeah. She’d make a great syncer when she’s old enough to take a job here”.

Date gave her a puzzled look. “Why do you think that, Boss

That… that was actually hard to say. Mizuki was a capable girl, but it was a stretch to look at that and say that she’d be a good syncer. Shizue did have a reason for why she had her idea about Mizuki, but it was ludicrous. She decided to bit the bullet and share her reason with Date.

_I guess my eccentricity is good for something. If this goes wrong, Date will probably just lump it with Mario and everything else I’ve shared that’s kind of weird._

“Would you believe me if I said it was because of a dream I had of her successfully syncing with you?”

She’d said that in a joking tone, partly because of how silly that idea was and partly because treating that dream as being on the level of a joke helped her make light of it. For some reason though, Date’s eyes widened.

“No way. That’s impossible”.

Date might have been reacting with disbelief, but it wasn’t in the way she’d expected. This wasn’t the sort of disbelief he’d show when reacting to something he thought was silly. Instead, Date’s reaction was like she’d done something literally impossible, like she’d just breathed fire or turned her desk into a giant boob. Shizue raised an eyebrow. “What?.

“I had a dream like that. Really, I did”. Date was quiet for a moment. He then asked “This might seem random, but did your dream have me attack So’s compound to save Mizuki and I got shot?”.

“It did”. Whatever this was was bizzare enough to make Shizue feel a chill go down her spine. “Date, how the hell do you know what I’ve dreamt!?”

“I want to know the same from you, Boss”.

“I have no fucking idea, obviously”

“Me neither”.

“My mind is filled with national secrets. Date, I can totally justify killing you if you’re reading my mind”.

“What?! Chill down, boss. I’m not reading your mind. Besides, haven’t you been talking about trying to run ABIS better recently? I think extrajudicial killings go against that a lot”.

“I know. I said that because this is really fucking weird, Date. I don’t understand this at all and it's freaking me out”.

“Same here. But still, don't kill me”.

"I'm not going to kill you, dumbass. Just.. give me a moment to process this". 

Date obligingly shut up and let her think. It didn't take her long to decide that they were at an impasse. After they were stuck in an awkward silence for a bit, Shizue said “How about we drop this topic for the sake of our sanity? Maybe even not talk about this again”.

“I'm starting to wonder if we really any sanity left. But sure, I can do that”

Date seemed to be as satisfied with the idea “Shut it, Aiba. This is not running away from the problem, just putting it off indefinitely”.

 _You’d think a guy who had a neural link to his partner for years would have gotten used to using that over talking out loud to himself._

“Anyway, I was going to call you later for something important. I’m not entirely ready, but you’re here now. So, as your boss… no, as your Big Boss, I’ve decided that we should start the briefing early”.

“Real original, Boss. I’m going to tell Inspector Kojima that you’re stealing his ideas”.

Shizue gave him a confused look. “We don’t have anyone with that name connected to this department. Who the hell is that? What are you even talking about?”.

“I’m not sure now”.

“Can I start my briefing now?”.

Date’s fake eyeball popped out of his head, landed on the floor and turned into Aiba’s mobile form. After doing that, Aiba cheerily said “You certainly can”.

"Thanks, Aiba".


End file.
